We arrived at Edale station in good time, so an early coffee in the National Trust café was unanimously approved.
Alighting at Chinley we were greeted with warm sunshine, and we were soon climbing steeply up the slopes of Chinley Churn (451m). The path meandered through the site of a long disused quarry before emerging onto the airy summit ridge. The views were extensive under the clear skies. We descended past the interestingly named “Peep o’ Day” Farm before crossing the busy main road. A mid morning break was taken overlooking Coldwell Clough, and as we sat in the sun we were treated to a fly past by a noisy Cuckoo. The path then climbed gradually to the ancient Edale Cross. After joining the Pennine Way we took lunch under the rocks of Swine’s Back, before proceeding past the familiar landmarks of Noe Stool, Pym Chair and the Woolpacks. Before long we had reached the summit of Grindslow Knoll, where we sat admiring the views over Kinder Scout and down the Edale Valley. Our final descent into the village conveniently brought us to the front door of Ye Olde Nag’s Head, where we rounded off a super walk with some liquid refreshment.
Thanks to Marianne, Dave C. and Steve W. for their company over a very pleasant 10 miles.
Sean.
Castle 50 Challenge
To celebrate the club’s 50th we are thinking about a fun collaborative challenge featuring the club’s three main outside activities: climbing, walking and cycling in the Peak District. Hopefully everyone can take part, both individually and in more organised Club events
The idea started off at a club dinner, so it may need altering in the more forensic light of alcohol free thinking. So ideas, suggestions, feedback on whether it is feasible etc etc are very welcome. Originally the challenge was going to be over one week – but we thought that might be too much and it meant that if people were away that week they would miss out completely, so we have extended it to three weeks.
So each week, over three weeks, we are suggesting a different challenge. These “challenges” are meant to be fun and a combined effort (although individuals can incorporate a personal challenge) and are a chance to celebrate the club’s roots in the Peak District. Each week works out to be a bit more of a challenge than the previous week.
Hopefully Mike Doyle will do the honours of declaring the club challenge open on his birthday meet, but the challenge proper
starts on Monday 10th July . The dates and challenges are:
Week One: Monday 10th – Sunday 16th July. Cycle challenge: 500 miles of cycling in the Peak District.
Marion has offered to lead some cycling trips and the aim is for the whole club to cycle 500 miles collectively. Elen might also organise a sedate electric bike ride along the Monsal trail for those with dodgy hips or unused to cycling etc
Week Two. Sun 16th – Sun 23nd July Walk 500 Peak District miles.
Elen will liaise with anyone who would like to lead a walk on either of these Sundays and of course the Thursday walk will be the big contribution. Elen also proposes a very gentle walk around Arkwright Mill, visiting the river and the canal-side. Max 1 mile – again for those recovering from hip ops or just want a gentle walk
Week Three: Sunday 16th – Sunday 30th July Climb 500 Peak District routes. This is centred around Andrew Milne’s 60 climbs in a week (end) to celebrate his birthday. Each person climb counts, roped, unroped, leader, second etc…All routes must be in a guide book and in the Peak District.
Obviously it is difficult getting three clear weeks; Steve Warwick is organising a week’s cycling in the Isle of Man during the walking week, so some club members will be away, but hopefully there will be enough club members still around to get the miles in….
Mary will be co-ordinating the count, which hopefully will appear on the website as a running total. So if anyone does any walking, cycling, climbing in the Peak District during the relevant week – just let her know – it all counts.
Question: Should we amend the Peak District rules for those, who would like to take part, but who live some distance from the Peak District (eg Scotland) ??
Sean has suggested that the club also tries to complete the Peak District Boundary Walk during this year. The Friends of the Peak District have put together a 190mile walk encircling the Peak District. The whole walk is covered in 20 day walks. We thought that from the official opening on June 17th to the dinner in October the club collectively walks the whole route. Any miles of this walk done in the walk challenge week will be gratefully accepted. More on this on your website soon.
We hope to put more details on the website, but we don’t want to over organise this, and really the whole idea is just to celebrate what we do, as well as the Peak District and the Club. Let us know if you think this is a goer .. Most of all it’s meant to be a bit of fun.
Happy 50th.
Mary, Marian, Bill and Elen
PS: Should we also aim to have 50 person cafe stops? That’s my type of challenge.
Muir of Inverey Report, Easter (14-17 Apr) 2017
11 members attended this meet over Easter at the comfortable Muir of Inverie Hut near Braemar which we shared with a party from the Glasgow section of the Red Rope-a convivial bunch.Initial concerns about inadequate numbers of beds were solved by making use of the 2 beds in the “members only” room.Fortunately no members of the owning Cairngorm club attended.
Some members arrived early enough on Friday to do some initial exploration-Steve W & Chris K ascending Morrone ,Braemar’s local peak.Mike D & Hugh D doing a walk from Mar Lodge over to Glen Quoich & back.
Saturday was an excellent day with sunshine ( mostly),snow showers and some wind-but not the forecasted gales.The group split into various parties .Steve W & 4 others did a 16.5 mile round over Lochnagar starting from the Balmoral estate.Sean J and others travelled towards Ballater to ascend the isolated Corbett Morven.The Smiths climbed Morrone while Geoff made it a full mountain day by cycling to Altamour Lodge for an ascent of Beinn Lutharn Mhor and many others !
Back in the hut the group enjoyed a group vegge chile washed down with a plentiful supply of alcohol.
Sunday was less sunny with a mixture of rain & snow showers,but no wind.The group again divided into different parties-many again returning to the Lochnagar area to tackle various Corbets & tops.The Smiths were surprised to find the main summit area had a fair covering of fesh snow which had fallen overnight.
Geoff set off by bike again to tackle Bein Chaorainn & Bein Bhreac.
Mike & Hugh abandoned an attempt on the Stuic ( grade 1 scramble) in quite steady rain and opted instead for the less taxing Carn na Drochaide and Carn na Criche near the Linn of Quoich with a descent of the “Fairy Glen” and a very long return via Glen Slugain .
Another convivial night at the hut followed,which was now less busy after the departure of the majority of the Red Rope party.
On Monday Steve,Mike & Hugh departed for home,but the others stayed on independently for various extra days they had booked independently.
A great meet in an area with so much to offer.
Mike D
Photos by Dave Crowther
From top of Morven, looking NE
Top of Morven (Sean & Jo)
Glen Quoich
East end of Laraig Ghru from Sgor Mor
Photos by Mike Doyle
Chris Kell on Cac Carn Mor
Summit party Meall Choire na Saobhaidhe
New members weekend report 23rd April 2017
The sunny weather made Stanage a joy to be climbing on. We set up base camp near Christmas crack/Garden wall area. Over the day, over 25 people attended, and lots of routes ascended from Diff to HVS. Good to welcome some new faces including one ex member , Chaz, who is planning to re join. New members from the last couple of years have shown excellent improvement in their leading, especially Ben, Gemma, and Julian. Thank you all for a really good day.
Ps We did get up Queersville at the end. I had forgotten just how reachy it is! See you all soon. Linda and David.
Thursday Walk 13th April 2017
11 us set off from Grindleford Station Café. We were very pleased to welcome Paul, joining us for his first Thursday walk and his seven year old Great Grand Daughter. Our ascent of Padley Gorge included an Easter Egg hunt where sufficient were discovered to
supply all. Deemed a great success especially for our young party member. Perhaps this could be a regular feature for future Easter walks?! Coffee break was taken just below Hathersage Moor Fort with a further mini egg hunt. We then climbed up to Higgar Tor before descending to Hathersage church for lunch via Toothill farm.
Our loo stop was courtesy of Outsides facilities, due to the public loos being closed. One of our number felt guilty enough to purchase some cake others expressing the view that previous purchases were more than sufficient to allow loo usage.
Our journey then took us along the river Derwent before crossing the railway line and back to the café where teas and “stickys” were devoured by some. A distance of 7.7 miles covered in fair weather and virtually no mud!
Thanks to all for your company and hope to see Paul again in the not too distant future.
Pete Hammond
Sunday 9th April 2017 climbing meet report
What wonderful weather we’ve brought back from Spain! 13 club members enjoyed the climbing at Lawrencefield. After doing sunny routes by the pond, gingerbread slab featured, a few went over to red wall and the roadside quarry area. Paul and Vanda got badly snarled up in marathon traffic, so were still climbing when most of us were leaving. Good to see Mary back on rock. Gave Julian his castle t shirt, who proudly wore it all day.!
Reminder, Yarncliffe on Tuesday Evening, not Wednesday as I was telling people!!!
Linda
Roaches – walk and climb: 2 Apr 2017
We could not have wished for a better day for the first climbing meet of the season. Eight climbers; the UK over-winterers stripped down for the weather, the Spanish contingent preferred their duvets.
And the walk was pretty good too, despite the mutiny at the Wincle brewery. Passing a brewery twice was too much for the group, so beer was drunk, an ale chocolate brownie eaten and some beer taken away.
Bill Boley
Brecon Beacons weekend, 25-26 March 2017
It was an absolutely glorious weekend which included some mountain biking.
On Saturday Bill and Elen used their mountain bikes to visit old caving haunts – caves, club huts and a pub (now too posh for cavers). Mostly easy going tracks over moorland, through forests and across rivers. Ride included: Red Kites, fantastic views, prehistoric sites, friendly farmers, waterfalls and a micro zoo – the marmosets and meerkats were really sweet.
Team effort meal was a winner – special thanks to Dave Crowther’s spices and Chris Kell getting on with what needed doing. We had a toast to Mary
ON Sunday a not very famous 5 (Tina, Chris, Bill, Scout and Elen) went on Tina’s first club mountain bike ride. The off road bits were limited as the navigator was a) at the back and b) talking too much and so kept missed the turn offs, but the ride back along the canal was just lovely. Despite the lack of ginger beer, Tina said she planned to go on future rides.
Thank you Mary for a lovely weekend – we missed you.The Croydon Caving Club Cottage was both cheap and memorable.
Bill & Elen
On Saturday morning a party of 7 headed for The Story Arms Centre, a popular starting point for this circuit of the Brecons. All car parks were full so the grass verge came in handy. We were soon climbing away from the busy road and with sky larks singing above we made our way across open moorland to the Tommy Jones obelisk. From here a steep climb took us to the top of Corn Du and a few minutes later we were on the busy summit of Pen y Fan(886m). Extensive views all round, particularly westwards to The Black Mountains. The next summit was Cribyn, then down to Bwlch ar y Fan (The Gap) where Gavin detoured to take in Fan y Big. He rejoined us before we crossed the valley by the old reservoir. A steep ascent followed up a well made path to a trig point. We could see the distant sea glinting in the sun. A blustery 2 miles along the edge of the escarpment brought us to the main path back to our starting point, where a conveniently placed tea van was taken full advantage of.
On Sunday we went our various ways. Some headed home and some went in search of waterfalls. A great meet, in a quaint and quirky hut, enhanced by brilliant weather.
Thanks Mary.
Sean.
Shining Clough scramble 19 March 2017 Report
In the absence of Geoff, who injured his calf muscle on Saturday,2 of us drove out to the Woodhead reservoir despite the poor forecast.
It was full waterproofs from the outset with gusting wind and rain.Reaching the start of the Clough we followed the stream to the entry pitch which was undercut with a raging waterfall pouring down it-not inviting!Deciding to avoid this ,we flogged up the steep hillside missing “the faint path” leading past the waterfall to the continuation of the scramble.Once above the steep side we reached level ground where we were greeted by strong wind and driving rain.At this point,having largely decided not to tackle the exit pitch and waterfall ( given the conditions and the warnings in the guide book /and by Geoff yesterday) we elected not to find the way back into the Clough only to exit again further up.
Rather than continue over to Bleaklow Head into the wind and driving rain we decided to follow the edge of the escarpment north eastwards with the wind behind us and descend a steady ridge we could see in the distance down to the eastern end of the Woodhead reservoir and return along the Longendale Trail.
In the event we found a land rover track unmarked on the map too convenient to ignore which provided a quick and easy descent back to the cars past “The Lodge” and its barking dogs.
Not the best of days on which to tackle this exciting Clough,but we resolved to return on a better day.
Mike
Climbing competition report: 16 Mar 2017
CLIMBING COMPETITION REPORT: despite a moderate turnout, great fun was had in the 50th anniversary climbing competition. The comp was split into several routes, including traverses/jamming cracks, chimneys, aretes and buttresses. Speed climbing also played a part. Liquid prizes were awarded as follows:
RESULTS:
Traverse: only Mr Doyle completed the whole circuit, so won easily.
Jamming crack: Dr Boyd was the only one to reach the target hold, [without handjamming once!!]
Speed climb up the buttress: unbelieveably, the event organiser in a time of 2mins,04 seconds!!
Prizes also awarded to top judge, Mary & most enthusiastic spectator Charles.
The CD entitled ”Got to keep on walking” was awarded to one who shall be nameless, who hadn’t climbed for quite a while!!
Thanks to all participants and spectators.
Paul Gibson